Lupo

Chapter Seventeen: Young Man's Fancy

Not the strongest chapter I've ever written in my life (i'm on the wine), but I promised myself I'd get this done and published today. As always, it's unedited.

(C)copyright SJCLewis 2020

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She knew he'd been following her ever since she'd reached the Cowley road, so Darcie wasn't altogether surprised when she almost collided with Tito in the supermarket. 

He'd positioned himself directly in her path, half-hidden behind a huge display of cut-price tampons, and was pretending to examine a box of sanitary towels with great interest. "For god's sake!" she huffed, glaring at him. "Will you ever leave me alone!?"

Tito looked up at her in mock surprise, grinning . "Darcie!" he exclaimed, raising his brow and tossing his head in exuberant astonishment. "Fancy bumping into you here!"

He dashed the sanitary towels into her shopping basket with a smirk and made to pull her in for a one-armed hug. Audrey, who was loitering at the other end of the aisle with her headphones in, shot them both a frown.

Darcie swatted him away and gave him a withering look. "Fuck off!" she hissed, snatching the box out of her basket and stuffing it back on the shelf. "Or i'll tell the security guard that you're harassing me!"

She pushed past him and stomped down the aisle towards the shampoo. She picked out the cheapest bottle with a grimace, and was just placing it in her basket when she felt him at her shoulder again. 

"I'm glad to see you're showering at last." he mocked, nodded towards the shampoo as she whirled around to glower at him. "You were starting to look a bit feral towards the end of your dissertation..."

Darcie huffed impatiently, but didn't reply. She pushed past him again - deliberately knocking her heavy basket against his elbow as she did so- and slouched back down the aisle towards the till.  To her great annoyance, Tito fell into step beside her a few moments later, chafing his hand up and down his arm.

"Ow!" he exclaimed, frowning in a great show of indignation that only irritated Darcie even further. "That hurt!"

Darcie pursed her lips to stop herself from swearing at him.  After a moments silence, Tito laughed, hurried a few steps ahead, and then turned on his heel to face her. He shoved his hands in his pockets and grinned easily at Darcie's reddening face as he began to walk backwards. 

"Not going to talk to me today, then?" he goaded, his grin widening at Darcie's furious expression. "Darcie! You're breaking my heart, here, baby!"

At the sound of the faux plea, a young man a little ahead of them looked up at Tito with a snort of derision. Darcie felt herself go red, and ducked her head as they passed him, but Tito's smile only seemed to grow wider. Wicked.

"I don't know what I'll do if you don't speak to me!" he moaned, a little louder this time, so that a few more people glanced up at them. "Baby, I'll die! I'll..."

They had reached the end of the aisle. Tito paused, looking over his shoulder to check he wasn't about to crash into anything, and Darcie took the chance to scurry around him. "Oh Fuck. Off!" she muttered savagely, beet red and conscious of the young man staring nosily after them. "I thought you weren't supposed to be talking to me, anyway?" 

It wasn't really a question she wanted, or needed, to hear an answer to. With a curt, uncomfortable little glance at the attendant manning the self check-outs, Darcie approached the tills without so much as a backwards glance at Tito. She had heaved her basket - groaning with value price spaghetti hoops- onto a checkout, and was scrabbling around in her bag for her wad of plastic shopping bags, before he appeared at her elbow again.